Short cuts: today's sound libraries are proving that good things come in small packages

Post, June, 2004 by Matthew Armstrong

Living as we do now in a 500-channel universe, the increasingly rapid pace of production relies more and more on library music. While the demand has increased for library music in all shapes and styles, there has been a particular rise in the need for shorter clips for use in opens, logos and promos.

"What is really fun is trying to make a musical statement in nine or even three seconds," says Allan Ett, president of library Opusl and music production company Allan Ett Music. "What I like about our work with the TriStar logo was that so much stuff happens in nine seconds."

Ask even the most accomplished musician to create a piece of music in just a few seconds and the initial reaction may be one of confusion and dismay. But for veteran composers for picture, this challenge is welcome.

"Opens have to be an invitation with a signature sound that is instantly recognizable, almost like a jingle," notes Steve Horelick, president of SCH Music. "I remember when I was scoring a lot of kids' shows, my goal was to create this magical sound to get kids running in and sliding in front of the TV. It's the same way with adults."

Studio City, CA's Promusic boast a library of 2,500 CDs, and for the past eight years nearly all of its music has been produced with shorter edits. These shorter pieces are rising in popularity across the board as programming increases every year.

"We've gotten heavy usage from the networks for promos and logos," says Promusic's managing director, Andrew Turner. "With the major networks starting up other cable networks, all the promos for these multiple channels are being handled under the same central department, so we've seen a lot more use in the past several years. And then, of course, because of time constraints libraries are being used more heavily than in the past."

SHORT STACK

For the past decade, music libraries have been quick to address the need for shorter clips. Mitchel Greenspan has been in the library business since 1983 and a year ago ventured out to form his own original music library business in Oceanside, NY, called American Music Company (www.americanmusicco.com). The collection currently has 55 CDs with 10 more in production. Like most other libraries, each tune on the CDs is broken down into various timeframes, including the full version, a :60, :30, :15 and a sting ranging from one to eight seconds. It is designed for use with intros, promos, transitions, bumpers and logos. In addition, the company has produced a production elements CD of 99 tracks specifically designed for logos, IDs and bumpers.

"One of the things I'd always get requests for when I was working at other music library companies is for production elements packages," says Greenspan. "Most libraries don't have anything along those lines so stations would have to hire custom logo and ID [music], which costs a lot of money. So we created this CD and clients can use it just like any other part of the catalog."

While the need for shorter bits of music for these traditional uses has increased with the increase in programming, Greenspan also notes stylistic changes in TV shows that have increased this demand.

"It started out with shows like CSI, which started having very creative sound design and music elements--not only as bridges and transitions between scenes but interspersed within the scenes themselves," says Greenspan.

Another trend driving the industry to shorter pieces is the rise in popularity of looping. Dallas-based Music Bakery (www.musicbakery.com), which opened in 1990, also offers cuts of many lengths, and president Jack Waldenmaier notes that the trend toward shorter clips has been growing for several years. "People have been using little bits of music as samples inside other pieces or looping them," he says. "The shorter duration pieces give them a lot more flexibility."

Hastings-on-Hudson, NY's SCH Music Library has a 20-year history as a music production company, Oasis Music, and throughout those years always retained the rights to the custom music they produced. A few years ago it decided to organize this collection into a library and created the Web site www.editorsmusic.com.

Unlike many collections, all the music at SCH was originally composed for picture.

"I still believe that music composed for picture works the best," says Horelick. "When you compose for picture, you're going after a mood or an emotion. When you compose music just for a library you are working in the dark. We're trying to create music that is very specific for people who know what they want, and they don't need those long cues."

Horelick goes on to explain that, "it's a pain to make a long cue short. Clients especially like short cues that aren't loops. Every one of our short cues has a definite beginning and an end, something you don't get with loop music. And unlike most of the library music out there, these short cues were written for picture already. They've been proven to work and have been on air and are collecting royalties."

Studio City, CA's Opusl (www.opuslmusiclibrary.com) started in 1998 and its library has been used in a wide range of productions, including many promos. But when it comes to opens and logos, the library often serves to lure clients to its sister company Allan Ett Music; which scored the logos for TriStar and Buena Vista Home Entertainment.